AYODHYA AS SEEN BY AN AVADHI

WHY WE WANT RAM MANDIR AT AVADH

by an Avadhi

This moving comment came to me from an Avadh native. I am giving it in full so people understand what the temple means to the long suffering people of Avadh (Ayodhya). It also contains many little-known facts of history that have been long suppressed.

NavaratnaRajaram (editor)

I am a native of Awadh (Ayodhya ) and I believe I am in a position to answer this question betterthan other non-Awadhi Indians.

Whatever information I have written here have been heard by me from my elders who have spent their childhood in Ayodhya or Faizabad.

Long history

So, let us first know what the origin of issue actually is, because everyone seems to know only the Mandir-Masjid dispute and nobody seems knowledgeable of the long history behind the row!

It all actually started when Jaychand, king of Kannauj came to Awadh and declared it to be part of his kingdom and removed all the signs of Samrat Vikramaditya including his portrait. In a fight with Mughals he died.With his death and after few years this area came under Babur when he invaded India.

Since Babur made Delhi as his capital, Awadh was quite far from his mental preoccupations.

A saint named Baba Shyamanand was appointed as their spiritual leader by Awadhis to take care of Ram Janma Bhoomi.

Baba Shyamanand was a highly respected saint with high spiritual knowledge and understanding. Soon, by virtue of his power of spiritual knowledge, he became quite famous amidst nearby kingdoms. By hearing his fame a mughal saint Khwaja Kajal Abbas Musa Ashika reached Awadh to learn something from him and became his disciple.

After hearing this news, a ‘fakir named Jalal Shah also reached Awadh to do the same.

Deceit and conspiracy!

Jalal Shah and Khwaja were Mughal extremists and they wanted to convert the whole of Awadh into Khurd Makka-e-Hind, because by that century Awadh had become the spiritual centre of the whole North India; Awadh became so famous that its popularity spread to many countries like Indonesia (even today, we see the effect of Ramayana in their culture).

Thus, by destroying this region, it was quite possible to disturb the deep religious roots of Hinduism.

With the help of Mir Baki, Jalal Shah and Khwaja presented the facts about the upsurge of Hinduism from Awadh at the court of Babur in Delhi and convinced Babur about the need to destroy Ram Mandhir, which was the centre of action in Awadh. Subsequently we all know how Babur ultimately destroyed the Ram Mandir!

When all this information about the conspiracy to destroy Ram Mandir reached Baba Shyamanand, he took the idol of Shri Ram from the temple and submerged it in the river Sarayu (which flows in Awadh). After this, he left Awadh and started his new journey to Himalayas in sorrow; he was feeling very remorseful since it is because of him that Jalashah and Khwaja were able to know all the secrets of Janma Bhumi and Awadh.

Even today it is believed that the idol of Raja Ram reached Nashik with the flow of water and locals there who picked up idol made a temple which is presently known as ‘Kale Ram Mandir’.

The four priests of the Ram temple removed all other important things from the temple and buried them inside it. (Some of them were found by The Archaeological Survey Of India in their investigation of disputed place and the artefacts unearthed are now in a museum).

The process of destroying Awadh started first by burying the dead bodies of Mughals in Awadh and its nearby areas. (So Hindus would not reclaim it.)

In the second step, Mir Baki killed all the four main priests of the temple and with the help of Canon demolished Ram Mandir (Ram Temple).

Even Baba Tulsidas has written something about this incidence:

(A Masjid was made by demolishing the temple at the place where Ram was born and by killing lots of Hindus). This was also presented by Mandir Supporters in High Court as a proof which was naturally opposed by Masjid Supporters!

(This is an interesting fact, a riposte to those who say Tulsidas never mentioned it.

The leftovers of Mandir and blood of our dead forefathers ( who fought first war for Janm bhumi as maintained above ) were used in place of water to make Masjid.

After that many wars were fought between Hindu kings and Shahi Sena (Mughals).

I can’t explain every war because it will make this note much too large!

Name of some Kings and Queens are as follows:

Raja Mehtab Singh Badri Narayan of Kingdom Bheet who fought with around 1 lakh 74,000 soldiers and locals against Babur. Ultimately lost the war.

Pandit Devideen Pandey ( senior purohit of local thakurs ) fought with huge support of 90,00 locals and villagers living nearby areas. Pandit Devideen Pandey killed by MirBaki and ultimately locals lost this war.No one survived in this war.

Raja RanVijay Singh of Kingdom Hansvar fought with 24,000 against Shahi Sena and ultimately lost this war.

Queen Of Hansvar or wife of Raja RanVijay Singh named Rani JayRaj Kumari fought with 3000 ladies against Shahi Sena. Got immense support from locals and other kingdoms. Janm Bhoomi came under control of Hindus but due to small wars nothing special happened in Awadh region. This continued till the rise of Humayun and ultimately after Humayun, janm bhumi again came under the control of mughals.

Many small wars by saints ( also known as Chimta-Dhari saints) were faught which resulted in the loss of lives of thousands of priests and saints!

Akbar (below) provides some relief, Aurangazeb destroys

When Akbar came to power, just to spread peace in his kingdom, he made a small temple inside that Masjid and allowed both hindus to sing bhajan and Muslims to offer Namaz. This continued till the time of ShahJahan. We Awadhis were satisfied.

When Aurangzeb came in power, due to his extremists agenda he stopped all this peaceful praying. He attacked Awadh 10 times and destroyed most of the other temples including Bharat Kund, Dashrath Kund etc…( currently under Hindu control). Under his time many wars were faught between Locals and Shahi Sena. Even today many Thakurs of Awadh region don’t tie Pagdi on head and wear Shoes in their foot just to give tribute to their forefathers who have fought to protect THEIR land from outside invaders! A small war even includes Guru Gobind Singh ji who helped locals in the war.

Massive loss of life

Till today as per estimate approx 12 lakh Hindus died just to regain control on THEIR piece of land! There has never been any peace in Avadh since Babur’s destruction.

Do you still think we Awadhis just forget the sacrifice of our forefathers and give this land. How can we accept a structure which is literally made by the blood of our forefathers?

We are not fighting for Ram, we are fighting for OUR land.We are fighting for our Emotional Freedom.

We are not fighting just for Ram, we are fighting against the attack which was done by some outsiders on our culture, for which we sacrificed so much.

Those VHP and all others who shout Jai Shri Ram even they don’t know all this. They just want to impose their ideology and some outsiders want to impose their Mughal Religion on us! In this fight of Hindu-Muslim, the one suffering most are those whose forefathers sacrificed their lives.

Actually I myself (an Avadhi) don’t want outsiders of Awadh even to talk about this matter! The memories are too painful.

This place is not just about our religious sentiments but about our Emotional sentiments and our sufferings and sacrifices!